


Bound In Frustration Part 3

by Lost_in_Labradorite_halls



Series: Bound In Frustration [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: AU, Gen, Lots of dialogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:13:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28595286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lost_in_Labradorite_halls/pseuds/Lost_in_Labradorite_halls
Summary: Loki confronts Alice. And learns why she cares so much. Part 3 of the Bound in Frustration series.
Series: Bound In Frustration [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2048968
Kudos: 1





	Bound In Frustration Part 3

Loki, at least, did not have to deal with the situation of Dharkath. Siksarth put him on leave, mostly for attempting to abandon Alice and for the fact that his stomach was still healing from being embedded with nanite technology. So Loki weaved himself through the station and to the main eating hall where Alice was eating something. She was alone and Loki sat down in front of her. 

She startled a little at his approach. And only then did Loki see a glimpse of her sketchbook. It was a portraiture of himself. All of it was in shaded and smudged gray graphite, except for the emerald gleam of his eyes. Alice was quick to stash it away. And the two sat in silence for a moment. 

“I’ve not told anyone, and I’m not going to tell anyone,” Alice finally said, the first to give under the awkwardness.

“I believe you,” Loki told her. She looked up at him. “I’ve been thinking about what you told me. And you are...a clever little thing….aren’t you?” She blushed. “You said some very interesting things that I simply missed because you happened to know a few of my secrets.” 

Her expression said that she knew more than just a few and that did make his stomach turn sour. 

“I do hope that you will bear my secrets, just as I bear yours,” she told him quietly. 

Loki “hmed” at her request. “Just, a few things to clear up. When you said that you were lucky to end up in the timeline where I survive, you meant that. But not in the way that I thought. Or rather the way you knew I would think.” 

She pursed her lips. “I swear, I’ve never used my powers on you,” she told him, again. 

“I believe you,” Loki told her again. He gave a low chuckle. “You don’t need a power to manipulate me, do you?” 

Alice looked like she was in pain, so Loki decided to help her out, this one time. “I see now why you are a valued member of the team. Not just a pretty face and a super power.” Loki gave a small smile as she turned bright red at the compliments. Perhaps this was more fun than the cold shoulder he had first presented her with. And that look, quite more endearing this time around. 

“But what really caught my attention, looking back now at our conversation. You weren’t just admitting to knowing everything. But rather, it was a confession. Secrets are quite a lonely existence, don’t you think?” 

“Yes,” Alice eagerly spoke, she couldn’t look at him now. Her face was still that bright color. 

“So now I will name your secret. Thanos won in your timeline. Half of life was destroyed. You among them. But somehow, presumably with the help of the stones everything was reversed. Except for you,” Loki told her, his voice soft. 

Alice leaned forward. She strained to hear him over the noise of the canteen. 

“Instead of going back to your normal timeline, you were brought here, with your power and your dreams.” 

Alice nodded her head as tears dripped from her eyes. 

“When you told Dharkath that you had no family or friends here, you were speaking the truth, easily believed because in fact you are from another reality. You truly do not have anyone.” Loki winced, he didn’t mean to sound so cruel, but now Alice had her head down on her arms as she wept soundly. 

With an annoyed sigh, Loki apologized. It took Alice a few minutes to calm down and when she did she sat there, clearly numb. This was exactly how Loki felt just the night before. He could see it on her face. 

“So,” Loki started. 

“So?” Alice asked, her voice numb, like the rest of her. 

“So, now you have told me your secret...sort of. What do you wish me to do about it? I cannot access the space stone for you. I have buried it deeply where HOPEFULLy no one will find it ever again. I can get you in contact with Dr. Strange, accessing other dimensions is more of his thing anyway.” 

“What?” Alice asked. 

“That’s why you told me, sought me out, specifically to help you get back home. As much as I hate to admit it, there really isn’t much I am able to do. Though if you have seen alternative timelines, or whatever, why not seek out Strange himself…” 

Alice was shaking her head. “No, I don’t…” 

“Don’t what?” 

Alice pursed her lips. “I don’t want to go back to my timeline.” 

Loki’s brows furrowed. “Why not?” 

“Thanos had killed a lot of people before the Snap,” Alice said with a shrug of her shoulders. My parents were in a plane on vacation to India when the Snap happened. When it was reversed they were 10,000 feet in the air and they fell to their death. My best friends didn’t disappear and now they are all five years older than me and somethings you just can’t go back to. And…” 

Loki waited. 

“And in that world...you’re not in it.” Alice peeked at him just in time to see him stiffen. 

It was his turn to shake his head. “I don’t know why you care so much,” he told her. 

Alice fiddled with her writing utensil, drawing little swirling patterns over her sketchbook cover. “No one could ever know. I had these crazy dreams. Dreams that I just thought were an over-active imagination. Truth of it, is that I had the dreams much longer than the power.”

Loki’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Alice was quick to explain. 

“When I came back from the snap. Or when I came here. There was another Alice. She and I were the same. She vanished when I got here. She was gone. And suddenly my parents were alive again and my sister was twelve years old again. And it felt like I got to do things over. But I got that power. All I had to do was to wish for a do-over and I got it. Life was, has been great. I had to learn how to lie, keep up the pretense of being Alice. I uh. Faked a brain injury at one point so I had something to blame for the fuzzy memories of a girl that had my face but wasn’t me. And then after a while I realized you were alive. 

In my world, I was thought as being crazy because of this weird obsession I developed over the invader of New York City. But so much of it. I saw so much. No way could I tell anyone in my world that you weren’t guilty...at least not in the way everyone had thought. In my dreams I saw you. I spent a lot of time alone, like you did. And I don’t know. Have you ever read a good story and that just helped you to get through the difficult things you had to do in the real world. That’s what seeing your life was for me. You made me feel not alone. That’s why I care. You helped me get through a lot.”

Loki was silent as he let that sink in. They both sat for a long time, before, this time, Loki broke the silence. “You called my...other skin ethereal,” Loki whispered. 

She blushed. 

“So you came all the way here because you wanted to meet your favorite book character?” 

“Technically I never actually read you in any books,” Alice argued. 

Loki tilted his head slightly at her. “That’s a lie,” Loki said, a little impulsively. He smiled, “I didn’t not think your face could become any redder. I was wrong.” 

“Okay, look I did read the Edda and a few others after the invasion, but they were all weird warped versions of you.” 

“Fair and I’ll let that slide,” Loki agreed. He too had read the mortals’ stories of him and his brother. “But answer the question.” 

“I came here to try and do some good. If I got to meet you then that would just be a sweet surprise.” 

“And now that you have?” Loki asked her. “What will you do now?” 

Alice frowned. “I don’t know. I figured maybe I would take a break from the thing, go back and Let mom know everything is alright.” 

“Your mother knows?” Loki asked. 

“Not...exactly,” Alice answered. 

Loki waited. And by waiting, he stared intently at her until she caved. Somehow he felt a bit lighter around her now. Whereas before Loki could not trust her. But there was something cathartic about her knowing everything. He felt a little light headed from it all. 

“So when Dharkath sent you to the cottage, Ju’rrean did report to Siksarth with the message that they’ve gone on to the coordinates that ‘he’ had sent and that you had left me behind. Siksarth sent me a coded message. Not only giving me the coordinates but warned me about the trap. It all wouldn’t matter though if I couldn’t get there in time. But….my mom and little sister were in town. Happened to be the one college my sister was looking into going. 

“You did not have your mother drop you off at the secret base of operations set up to trap us.” 

“I got there in time to help, didn’t I?” 

Loki put his head in his hands. “Barely.” 

Alice shrugged.

“I think, perhaps this type of job isn’t meant for you.” 

“Maybe. But I have this power and I have to use it to help people, or else it is wasted on me. I’d give it to you if I could,” she told him.   
Loki gave her a look as if he didn’t quite believe her. But she sighed only in response. The silence seemed to weigh heavily on Alice. But Loki had nothing more to say. She looked as if she did. Loki let her chew on that as he bid her farewell. For now. The mortal held so many secrets of his, that he expected to see her again.


End file.
